The State of Utah recently passed a sweeping education reform bill that provides for complete and total K-12 school choice as well as school vouchers (ranging from $500 a year to $3,000 a year based on family income) for private school. Unlike the entitlements our friends on the welfare-state left love to hand out, laws like this actually help the poor.
The bill makes Utah's school choice law the nation's most progressive by far (and when I use words like "progressive," "diversity," and "choice," they actually mean those things). It's a great piece of legislation because it's about getting the decision-making process, particularly for low-income families, out of the hands of bureaucrats and unions and into the hands of parents and their children. It's about giving teachers more leeway in using discipline and more local control over the teaching methods they use. It's about transforming education from a Soviet-style "one-size fits all" system into a diverse and competitive market-based one. It's about giving people the freedom of choice instead of merely throwing dollars at a broken system.
European countries, which on average spend substantially less per pupil than we do, have allowed for school choice for years and their kids outperform American students on just about every comparable test (if you have time, you can watch this 20/20 Special on YouTube for more details and facts). American schools were the same way until the 1960's. Thanks to states like Utah, it looks like things may finally be trending back in the right direction.
I'm willing to bet you will start to see Utah's students perform better on nationwide tests over the next few years. Georgia, whose school choice law only allows for the creation of charter schools on a limited basis, should follow Utah's lead.
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